USATF Indoor Men — World Record For Donavan Brazier

February 25, 2019by Rich Sands

The all-time indoor kilo best dropped to 1:13.77 as Donovan Brazier ran away with the USATF race. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

Staten Island, New York, February 22-24—Donavan Brazier’s blazing World Record in the 600 highlighted the men’s competition at the USATF Indoor Championships on a weekend filled with first-time winners. Just two weeks after setting an AR in the 800, Brazier scorched three laps of the track in 1:13.77 for the weekend’s top mark at the Ocean Breeze complex. With no World Indoor team to select this year, USATF continued its recent odd-year trend of mixing up the track races with a slate that included the 300, 600, 1000, mile and 2M.

Facing a mix of sprinters and halfmilers convened in the 600, Brazier executed a perfect race. Kalmon Stokes flew through the 200 in 23.28, with Brazier (23.82) back in 4th. He pushed to the front on the penultimate homestretch to take control of the race at 400 (48.08) before powering home in 25.69 to cut more than a second off the 1:14.79 Kenya’s Michael Saruni set a year ago while running for UTEP.

“There were 400 guys in there, so there was no way I’m taking the lead,” the Michigan native admitted of his strategy. “I knew if I was sitting in 2nd or 3rd, that when my body wanted to go and as soon as I felt them let up that was time to go. And I saw the moment and I took it and didn’t look back.” Sam Ellison (1:15.20) and Kameron Jones (1:15.32) were well beaten, but they moved to Nos. 5 and 6 on the U.S. all-time list.

Brazier won the 800 at last year’s meet, but an Achilles injury kept him from running outdoors, so he was especially happy to be back in top form. “Having a good solid indoor season like this is a perfect set up for outdoors,” he said. “If you just focus on indoors that experience becomes fool’s gold. You kinda live off that for a while. I don’t want to live off that, I just want to use this as a stepping stone to something great outdoors.”

Brazier Comfortably Atop The All-Time 600 List

Donavan Brazier isn’t just No. 1 on the all-time world 600 list, he’s No. 1 by just over a second in an event that isn’t officially recognized by the IAAF, but we nonetheless ascribe WR status to. The Top 10:

Time

Athlete

Date

(A) = mark aided by more than 1000m altitude

1:13.77

Donavan Brazier (US)

2/24/19

1:14.79(A)

Michael Saruni (Kenya)

1/20/18

1:14.91

Casimir Loxsom (US)

1/28/17

1:14.96

Isaiah Harris (US)

1/28/17

1:14.97(A)

Emmanuel Korir (Kenya)

1/20/17

1:15:07(A)

Erik Sowinski (US)

3/05/17

1:15.12

Nico Motchebon (Germany)

2/28/99

1:15.20

Sam Ellison (US)

2/24/19

1:15:26

Adam Kszczot (Poland)

2/05/12

Already a 2-time outdoor national shot champ, Ryan Crouser picked up his first indoor crown, hitting 72-10¾ (22.22) in the fourth round. That was good for the No. 10 throw ever (No. 5 U.S.), not far off the 73-3¼ (22.33) PR he set at the Millrose Games two weeks earlier. The reigning Olympic champion almost didn’t return to New York after coming down with a fever and sore throat immediately after Millrose. “This was better than I expected for essentially two weeks of no throwing,” he said after a series in which all five of his legal throws were over 70-feet. “I had a lot less in the tank in terms of energy and power today.” Runner-up Joe Kovacs had a slow start but hit his best put of the day, 70-2½ (21.40), in the final round.

Another first-time winner provided one of the meet’s most entertaining—and unusual—victories. Drew Hunter took the 2M title out of the unseeded section three hours before the main heat went off. Without a qualifying time the Virginia native had to petition his way into the meet and was forced into the overflow race after 24 athletes declared. Following a relatively conservative first mile the schoolboy record-holder in the mile—still just 21—closed hard, covering the final 1600 in 4:07.04 and wo his heat by more than 13 seconds in 8:25.29. “I knew I had to run hard the last mile,” said Hunter, the No. 2 ranked U.S. 1500 runner last year, who previewed his strength with a 9th-place finish at the USATF XC Champs earlier in the month. “I didn’t really know what splits I was running, but I knew it felt faster than the first mile.”

Drew Hunter scored an all-alone win in the B section of the 2M and it stood up for the overall win. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

Then it was time to wait. Standing trackside during the second section, with a TV camera capturing his emotions, Hunter bounced up and down like a kid waiting to open presents on Christmas morning. He watched intently as the seeded runners seemed ambivalent about chasing his mark. Eric Avila outkicked the field, but his time of 8:32.41 was more than 7 seconds off the pace. “It was a very stressful 8½ minutes, but pretty cool to come out on top,” Hunter said. “A very unique way to win a U.S. title, but I couldn’t be happier. Pretty surreal moment right now.”

Brazier’s training partners Clayton Murphy and Craig Engels made a clean sweep of the middle-distance events. Murphy added the 1000 crown to the one he scored in ’17, finishing in 2:20.36. Engels notched his first title, taking a tactical mile in 3:59.69 after covering the final two laps in 27.89 and 26.17.

Among the other first-time winners was Andrew Irwin, who cleared 19-¼ (5.80) to take the pole vault, his debut U.S. title after bagging NCAA indoor crowns for Arkansas in ’12 & ’13. More newbie indoor champs included Demek Kemp in the 60 (6.55), Dontavius Wright in the 300 (32.81); 3-time outdoor winner Devon Allen, who cruised to a 7.60 win in the 60 hurdles; Jeron Robinson in the high jump with a 7-4¼ (2.24) clearance (to go with his ’18 outdoor title); Jordan Downs in the long jump, at 25-4½ (7.73); Daniel Haugh in the 35-pound weight, reaching 79-1¾ (24.12); and Tim Ehrhardt in the heptathlon (5868).

The meet returns to Staten Island next year—when world indoor championships berths will be on the line—as part of a 2-year deal to host the event.